On this last account it is held of much greater sanctity by the Shia branch of Mohammedans, to be found in Persia and India, than by the Sunni branch, to which nearly all Egyptian Moslems belong.
In both Dakhla and Kharga Oases it is customary on this day for everyone to receive a present as on our Christmas Day. A boy is given a chicken, a girl a pigeon, a man a cock turkey, duck or other large bird, while a woman receives a hen bird of the same species. All the eggs in the village are saved up for this feast, and for a week or so before it is almost impossible to buy any. These eggs are hard-boiled and dyed, and are used by the people to pelt each other with—this, I believe, is also done in some parts of the Nile Valley, but not on the occasion of this feast, but on that of Shem en Nessim. A sort of game is also played by the men in the oases, who knock their eggs together, the one that breaks first being taken by the owner of the egg that broke it.
“Pace” eggs are used in Cumberland at Easter in a game exactly similar to that described. “Pace” being supposed to be a corruption of the French “Pasque.”
In these oases they believe, as the inhabitants of the Nile Valley also do, that on the night following this festival a benevolent jinni (female spirit, or fairy) wanders sometimes round the villages, in the form of a mule, known as the Baghallat el Ashar, or “mule of the tenth,” bearing a pair of saddle-bags filled with treasure to be bestowed upon some deserving Moslem. In order that the mule may have every opportunity of selecting its inmates as the recipients of its bounty, the door of every house in the village is left open during the night.
In the Nile Valley they believe that the mule has a string of bells round her neck, and the head of a dead man on her back between the saddle-bags, and that on arriving at the house of the fortunate individual whom she intends to enrich, she shakes her head, so ringing the bells, at the door, and remains there until the owner comes out and empties the saddle-bags and fills them up with straw. This, however, he will be unable to do, unless he can muster up sufficient courage to remove the dead man’s head from her back, a proceeding made somewhat formidable by the fact that the head rolls its eyes and scowls at him in what, I was told, was a most terrifying manner. I could not, however, hear that this belief holds good in the oases.
At the beginning of summer comes the Khamasin—the “fifty days,” during which the hot simum wind may be expected to blow. The first day of this is known as Shem en Nessim—“smelling the breeze.” It is the day after the Easter Sunday of the Coptic Church, and is kept as a festival throughout Egypt.
On this day in the oases, barley from the new crop is hung over the outer doors of the houses to bring plenty in the following year. Onions too—which overnight have been placed under the pillows of the inhabitants of the house—“to make them energetic”—are hung with the barley in order that they may “bring refreshment” to the family till next season. The onions grown in the oases appear to be unusually pungent, and I have several times seen a native “refresh” himself by stuffing a small one up one of his nostrils. Perhaps inhaling air through one of these odoriferous bulbs in this manner produces a cooling sensation on the air passages similar to that caused by peppermint.
In some cases branches of the oshar[14] tree are placed with the barley and onions over the door in order to keep off scorpions, reptiles and venomous insects, and to prevent the family from being lazy. This use of oshar I believe to be peculiar to Dakhla and Kharga Oases.
It is also usual on this day for the natives to bathe before dawn in order that they may be “refreshed,” till the following year—when presumably they take their next bath. This custom I have heard also obtains in the Nile Valley.
The oshar tree, when cut, exudes sap freely, and this sap is occasionally inserted by men, who wish to avoid enlistment, into their eyes. It is said to set up violent inflammation for a few days, resulting in more or less total loss of sight. Fibre from the dried fruit of this tree is also used to stuff pillows with; but I was unable to ascertain whether it was supposed to have any peculiar properties.